LOST PIONEERS
THE LOST PIONEERS
Our
view of the pioneer settler is often one in which the individual came
to our county early in its history and remained here the rest of their
lives. Actually, this is a highly inaccurate view. Many of the early
and very influential or important settlers did not remain in Cherokee
County. As a result, we have lost the stories of their lives even
though we may be aware of the contribution they made to early
settlement in our county.
In fact, some of the early settlers did
spend the rest of their lives in our county. One only has to think of
Robert Perry, Carleton Corbett, George W. Banister, Albert Phipps, Dr.
Royal Cleaves, George Leabourveau, E. C. Herrick, George W. Pettengill
and O. S. Wight, all settlers who came to Cherokee County before 1870,
and who remained here the rest of their days, and who were finally laid
to rest beneath the sod of the county they helped to settle.
A host
of others, however, many of them very prominent while they lived here,
or very early settlers, moved away and lived the remainder of their
lives elsewhere.
Harvey Wamsley, the first settler in Pitcher
township, moved to Washington state and died there when an animal den
he was digging out collapsed.
W. H. Harriman came to Cherokee County
in 1869 and started a grocery store in Old Town (Blair City). When the
railroad came, he moved his store to New Cherokee. Harriman was a real
estate agent and a lawyer as well as a merchant. From 1873 to 1875, he
was county superintendent of schools. Harriman planted one of the first
artificial groves in the county. In 1874, Harriman left Cherokee and
moved to Hampton, Iowa. He was later mayor of Hampton and a member of
the Iowa General Assembly, serving in both the House and the Senate. In
1927, he passed away in Palacios, Texas, being involved there in a land
promotion deal.
John H. Roe came to Cherokee in 1870. He was the
land agent for the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad Land company. He
sold early settlers thousands of acres of Cherokee County lands. Roe
was superintendent of schools for a time, and his brother, Dan Roe, ran
a local restaurant. It was John Roe who was ordained to enforce the
land company’s edict against selling alcoholic beverages on land which
had been purchased from them.
In 1871, Roe moved to Omaha and in
1874 to Buffalo County, Nebraska, where he became an implement dealer,
land agent, lawyer and large land owner. He lived until after the turn
of the century and died in the state of Kansas.
Henry Roddis, the
first settler in Sheridan Township, left Cherokee County in the 1890’s
and eventually died in the state of Florida while married to his third
wife.
Myron Hinckley, the pioneer writer from Amherst Township,
whose journals are the best source of information on the period during
the coming of the railroad, eventually moved to Mount Vernon, Iowa, and
passed his declining years there.
Thomas Twiford, the pioneer who
built the first water powered saw mill in Cherokee County, and
was a noted contractor and bridge builder, moved to northern Iowa in
the 1870’s and there we lost track of him.
George Coonley, the first
county superintendent of schools and the man who platted Pilot Rock
City in 1858, joined the gold rush to Colorado. Stories filtering back
indicate that in fact he did discover gold, became wealthy and lived
the rest of his life in Colorado.
J. W. Tilden, the man for whom Tilden township is named left the county and went west in 1885 and we lose sight of him.
Joseph Dowding, one of the first settlers in Diamond Township moved to Des Moines and died there in 1918.
N.
T. Burroughs came to Cherokee in 1869 and operated a livery stable.
Late, he became a banker, a large land owner, and the developer of the
Fountain House. He became a founder of towns and when the Cherokee and
Dakota Railroad was built in 1887, in the process of his business
dealings, became a millionaire. Later he moved to Chicago and died
there, though his body was shipped back to Cherokee and he is buried
here.
Each of these men and many others made significant
contributions to the history of Cherokee County. Each in his own way
was a prominent citizen of our county. Wamsley was a true frontiersman,
living in a sod shanty and hunting and fishing in the tradition of
Daniel Boone. He also built the first frame house in Pitcher Township
and operated a ferry over the Maple River. Burroughs was a financier,
in the manner of Pierpont Morgan on a smaller scale. These emigrants
from our county made important contributions to the county.
Unfortunately, because they moved away we have lost sight of the
contributions of most of them, and the story of their lives has been
lost.
Indeed, these men and women are the lost pioneers. In some
cases, the biographical histories printed about the county simply
ignored them. The general histories written about the county have
failed to give adequate coverage to their achievements and virtually no
coverage to their later lives. An example of this is that W. F.
Harriman was in the state senate when the struggle to secure the State
Hospital for the Insane for Cherokee was taking place. McCulla mentions
that Senator Harriman was a special friend to Cherokee and was quite
influential in helping secure the hospital for Cherokee. He does not
discuss that this self-same gentleman was an early Cherokee County
settler and was a person acquaintance of many of the leading men of
this community.
The newsletter staff carries on extensive
research, and from time to time the Newsletter hopes to print
biographical sketches of some of these lost pioneers. We think that by
doing so, we can make a significant contribution to an understanding of
the people who helped to settle our county. On the whole, these were
interesting, active people whose story deserves telling. We hope our
readers will agree.
Source: Article written by Mildred Smith for unknown news publication dated 06 June 1962
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